Cloud over cot death expert as mother is freed

A mother jailed for life for murdering her two sons has had her conviction overturned, becoming the third woman in Britain this year to successfully question expert evidence about multiple cot death.

Speaking outside the Court of Appeal in London, Angela Cannings, 40, who has a seven-year-old daughter, described her experience as a living hell.

"Finally today justice has been done and my innocence has been proven," she said. "I would like to go home now and be mummy to our very precious daughter."

She had been convicted in April last year of murdering her seven-week-old son, Jason, in 1991 and 18-week-old Matthew in 1999.

Her first child, Gemma, had died from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), or cot death, aged 13 weeks in 1989, and she had maintained her two sons had suffered the same fate as a result of a genetic flaw in her family.

But at her trial, one of Britain's foremost paediatric authorities on SIDS, Professor Sir Roy Meadow, said three deaths in the one family was "very, very rare". In legal circles, he is credited with so-called Meadow's Law, which states that three deaths must be murder, unless otherwise proved. He has also given expert evidence in the trial of two other British women, Sally Clark, a solicitor, and Trupti Patel, a pharmacist.

Mrs Clark served more than three years in jail before her conviction for murdering her two sons was overturned in January, while Mrs Patel was acquitted in June of murdering her children Amar, Jamie and Mia.

Mrs Cannings's lawyer, Bill Bache, said the prosecution against his client should not have gone ahead until more was known about the causes of cot death. The lead appeal judge, Lord Justice Judge, said there was still much scientific inquiry into cot deaths, and the judges ruled that Mrs Cannings's conviction was unsafe.

The Crown Prosecution Service has said it will consider reviewing other cases that have involved expert evidence from Professor Meadow, who said in Mrs Clark's trial that two cot deaths in one family was a one in 73 million chance.

In Britain, about six babies die each week from SIDS, and scientists say there is increased risk of a second baby dying from cot death in families that have suffered a first. But they are unsure why.